Forums of the Megaverse®

Elsewhere, a Fourth Waller boarded the tiny shuttle to the Ontario Quadrant, loaded down with GenCon swag.

SRoss wrote:Elsewhere, a Fourth Waller boarded the tiny shuttle to the Ontario Quadrant, loaded down with GenCon swag.

Can't wait to hear what happen!

Alpha 11 wrote:

SRoss wrote:Elsewhere, a Fourth Waller boarded the tiny shuttle to the Ontario Quadrant, loaded down with GenCon swag.

Can't wait to hear what happen!

He's still recovering... Seriously, what sadist makes a passenger plane that's more cramped then a municipal bus!?!

SRoss wrote:

Alpha 11 wrote:

SRoss wrote:Elsewhere, a Fourth Waller boarded the tiny shuttle to the Ontario Quadrant, loaded down with GenCon swag.

Can't wait to hear what happen!

He's still recovering... Seriously, what sadist makes a passenger plane that's more cramped then a municipal bus!?!

Slowly raises hand.......and points to Gendo.

Kargan3033 wrote:

SRoss wrote:

Alpha 11 wrote:

SRoss wrote:Elsewhere, a Fourth Waller boarded the tiny shuttle to the Ontario Quadrant, loaded down with GenCon swag.

Can't wait to hear what happen!

He's still recovering... Seriously, what sadist makes a passenger plane that's more cramped then a municipal bus!?!

Slowly raises hand.......and points to Gendo.

Grabbing the Proton Pack Louie built...

"Please ! Not -IN- the(sound of explosive cabin decompression)

taalismn wrote:"Please ! Not -IN- the(sound of explosive cabin decompression)

But considering that within the last five years, there's been at least three initiatives by major airlines to institute 'standing room' only seating to pack in passengers and 'reduce costs vs rising fuel prices', Gendo's not the most likely culprit.
Frankly, I think the airlines trot the plans out just to get traveler advocacy groups to 'shut up about seating; we COULD make it worse'...and if nobody raised a stink about the plans, well, like a Dilbert cartoon, there's a subculture of sadistic corporate officers(who can afford to fly first class or private) who would gleefully pack'em in like sardines.

SRoss wrote:

Alpha 11 wrote:

SRoss wrote:Elsewhere, a Fourth Waller boarded the tiny shuttle to the Ontario Quadrant, loaded down with GenCon swag.

Can't wait to hear what happen!

He's still recovering... Seriously, what sadist makes a passenger plane that's more cramped then a municipal bus!?!

Kargan3033 wrote:

SRoss wrote:

Alpha 11 wrote:

SRoss wrote:Elsewhere, a Fourth Waller boarded the tiny shuttle to the Ontario Quadrant, loaded down with GenCon swag.

Can't wait to hear what happen!

He's still recovering... Seriously, what sadist makes a passenger plane that's more cramped then a municipal bus!?!

Slowly raises hand.......and points to Gendo.

SRoss wrote:

Kargan3033 wrote:

SRoss wrote:

Alpha 11 wrote:

SRoss wrote:Elsewhere, a Fourth Waller boarded the tiny shuttle to the Ontario Quadrant, loaded down with GenCon swag.

Can't wait to hear what happen!

He's still recovering... Seriously, what sadist makes a passenger plane that's more cramped then a municipal bus!?!

Slowly raises hand.......and points to Gendo.

Grabbing the Proton Pack Louie built...

taalismn wrote:"Please ! Not -IN- the(sound of explosive cabin decompression)

taalismn wrote:But considering that within the last five years, there's been at least three initiatives by major airlines to institute 'standing room' only seating to pack in passengers and 'reduce costs vs rising fuel prices', Gendo's not the most likely culprit.
Frankly, I think the airlines trot the plans out just to get traveler advocacy groups to 'shut up about seating; we COULD make it worse'...and if nobody raised a stink about the plans, well, like a Dilbert cartoon, there's a subculture of sadistic corporate officers(who can afford to fly first class or private) who would gleefully pack'em in like sardines.

BUT, if not all of them do it, then everyone will go to those. You got to love free enterprise in that way. It helps protect us from stupid things like that.

I am still going. A little slower, now that the momentum is dwindling. Here goes...
********
Rei Ayanami was displeased. Most people would say that she wasn't an easy person to please, that she was a predominately unhappy person. That her displeasure was one of the founding principles of the universe running properly.

Their cynicism was fairly accurate. Instrumentality had been rough on Rei. After taking command of the process and granting it to Shinji (the Committe for Human Instrumentality had been most useful pawns for her purposes), she had held the Egg of Lilith in her hands as the sum of all human knowledge filtered itself through her. She was quite thankful that it was all human knowledge, and not merely the internet. The only people left in the world were Shinji, Asuka, Gendo, Kaworu Nagisa (who had managed to survive his own 'death' at Shinji's hands), and herself. Kaworu had turned out to be a fairly pleasant person, once they'd had the chance to talk.

Once Shinji had recovered from his ego barrier breaking, and Asuka stopped being ill from the massive neural feedback during the battle with the Main Production Evangelions, Shinji sat on the beach, gazing off into the distance, Misato's necklace cupped in his hands. Occasionally his shoulders would shake, and Rei knew through her connection to the Egg of Lilith that he was grieving the loss of his guardian and adopted big sister.

Elsewhere, Asuka was sitting on a broken wall, shellshocked over the events of the last few days. Between everything that had happened, her mind had shut down before she was stuffed back into Unit-2. The caring portion of her mother's soul bound within Unit-02's core managed to awake her enough to be able to fight the JSSDF forces. Nobody had expected the Main Production Eva units, much less their ability to regenerate like they had.

Gendo was holding the stump of his wrist close, while smoking a cigarette he'd liberated from a store that hadn't been immersed in LCL. He'd seen Yui emerge from Unit-01's core, berating him for not following her plans for Instrumentality. He himself had accused her of keeping secrets from him, of going too far with her version of Instrumentality, of abandoning him and their child, and then it all descended into a shouting match.

It ended with Yui slapping him, then ascending back into Unit-01's core. As soon as the plating closed, however, Gendo's own craftiness came into play.

Fuyutsuki had always objected to Yui's plan for Instrumentality, the fullness of which she never shared with Gendo. Many years later, Fuyutsuki ended up filling Gendo in on the entirety of Yui's plans, including her idea of taking as many souls as she could into Unit-01's core and flying off to seed a different planet with life.

Once the plating closed, explosive bolts attached to the undersides of the chest armor detonated, severing Unit-01's connection to the S2 organ that it had consumed from the fourteenth angel. In the same instant, charges along it's back went off, jettisoning the reserve batteries.

Instantly, Unit-01 shut down. The eyes ceased glowing, the chest armor buckled outwards, the stolen S2 organ hitting the LCL-stained earth between it's feet as the force of the explosives toppled the giant cyborg backwards.

"Sealed you," Gendo muttered in satisfaction as Unit-01 slammed through a building, shattering it completely before coming to a complete rest. "'A monument to all of humanity', my ass."

Then he got his pack of cigarettes, pulled a lighter out of his pocket ('Once a smoker, always a smoker,' he thought to himself), sat down on a wall, and lit up for the first time in well over a decade.

Once he'd gotten through three cigarettes (and the inevitable coughing fit), he shambled over to where Shinji was sitting on the beach. Plopping down next to his offspring, he said, "Shinji, I know I can never make up for what has happened. For how I sent you away to live with your teacher. For how I abandoned you for a decade. For how I treated you since you arrived in Tokyo-3. But I still want you to know that I'm very proud of you. You have defied the world's true governing force, and denied them their self-realized deification."

Gendo sighed, lighting another cigarette before he pulled a flask out of his jacket pocket. Then he frowned, realizing that he couldn't smoke and drink at the same time with only one hand. "This plan, called Instrumentality, was SEELE's plan to become gods. Your mother had a slightly different goal in mind. She wanted to become a god, and use Unit-01 to seed another world with human life. I disagreed with both the plans once I found out, and in order to be able to operate my own contingencies I sent you away."

Shigting slightly, Gendo stared out at what his son's gaze had fixed upon. The massive form of Rei Ayanami's grinning head that could be seen from orbit stared back.

"At any rate, what you do with the Instrumentality now is up to you, son. Humanity is united, now war, no pain, no lies. But at a tremendous cost. You can join them if you wish, remake them however you want, or even reverse all of this. It's up to you. But whatever you do, please know that I am extremely proud of you, and will help in any way I possibly can."

"I see", came the murmurred response. "Why did you do that just now?"

Gendo grunted, peeling the cap off his flask with his teeth before sipping the vodka. "Because Yui never trusted me with her entire plan. She knew I'd prevent it. I got the full plan out of Fuyutsuki, and took precautions."

"So she's trapped in Unit-01 again."

"Son, the only reason she was trapped in there in the first place was because she didn't want to come out. Our initial attempt to pull her out was what originally resulted in Rei."

Shinji grunted, his thumb absently rubbing Misato's blood off of the necklace. "What should I do now?"

"That's up to you, Shinji. Like I said, you could reset everything back to the way it was, or keep every living creature as a sea of LCL, immortal and united, but ultimately ineffectual. There is even the option of resetting the world into your personal playground. Basically, you're God right now. But whatever you decide, I will help you in what ways I can."

Rei noted that Shinji's AT-Field seemed to be coalescing, becoming more focused as he trickled his hand through the reddish yellow sea lapping at his feet. Standing, he donned the cross necklace and walked into the surf.

Within moments, the sea of LCL began to recede, She could sense people reforming even as time rewound a little. God had spoken, and His words were, "Not this."

Minutes later, most of the world had been restored, and Shinji walked back into the Geofront. Gendo followed, gently pulling Asuka with them. One by one, Shinji reformed the personnel of NERV, leaving a few of them with the knowledge of what had occurred.

At the end of it all, the inner walls of the White Egg glowing in resonance with his will and AT-Field, he stopped at the Cage. There was Misato's body, still deceased. He couldn't sense anything from her; resurrection was not possible. Tears in his eyes, he asked a few crew members to carry her body out.

Shinji dug her grave himself, and her tombstone read:
Katsuragi Misato
Dec 8, 1986 to Dec 19, 2015
A Better Sister Will Never Be Found

Later, after sending Gendo to discuss matters with workld leaders (and after Shinji was forced to excercise his will over Unit-01 at them), things settled down. Asuka got therapy for her many, many issues, Shinji began to get less passive aggressive after letting go of his grip on Godhood. Gendo managed to keep NERV as a militant arm of the United Nations, mostly as reserve combat troops in case the angels returned.

Rei had tried to get together with Shinji, and he let her down gently, saying that he was waiting for Asuka to be ready. She'd tried dating during college, but none of the men there could hold a candle to Shinji's gentleness, caring, and ferocity when it came to defending the few he cared for.

There was a night, during her junior year in college. Asuka, Shinji, and Rei had gotten together to catch up. Then they started taking about old times. And then the old, jokingly used insults began to fly. One thing led to another, and...

Yeah. Shinji was red-faced about the whole thing, Asuka just kind of smirked, and Rei wondered where Asuka knew how to fit *that* in *there*. Asuka only replied, "I've been to college before, y'know" and winked at her.

Sadly (in Rei's view), that night was never repeated. Shinji ebded up marrying Asuka, properly restarting NERV as a primary research and defense facility against a possible repeat of the angelic invasions. And then the car accident happened.

If the new Section 2 member hadn't been there, Asuka would have died. As it was, she had extensive damage to pretty much every portion of her body, and was, to this day, in a tank of LCL (not all of humanity was reversed) where her body could heal. Her AT-Field was present, which meant Rei knew her soul was there, but she feared that the brain damage might have been to great to recover from, even with advanced regeneration equipment. Shinji had held out hope that he could engineer a kind of mini-Instrumentality, and use that to bring Asuka out of her coma.

Gendo had been very useful and, true to his word, advised Shinji on how not to make the same mistakes he had. Shinji rehired Maya Ibuki, whose real job was to be the new NERV's conscience. Rei was already working there as a scientist specializing in Evangelion Core design, while Gendo took a voluntary reduction in position as the head bio-physicist. Others were trained for their positions, and trained well.

All of this effort had left a bitter taste in Rei Ayanami's mouth. The one man she wanted she couldn't have, even after his wife was brain dead. She remembered that one magical night, her one positive sexual experience. And she wanted that again.

And she had tried. Oh, how she had tried, only to be gently let down every single time by Shinji. But she still supported him, mostly as the brain behind the heavily remodeled Dummy Plug Project.

And a little while ago, she'd gotten a call that a lone intruder was making his way through NERV. Heavily armed, armored, clearly looking for something in there. And he'd locked Gendo in the Room of Gaulf after changing the codes; Gendo had been most impressed with the man's tactic.

Fortunately, Gendo had managed to fool the man, but his locking of the door also meant that the Minions couldn't be unleashed. Gendo's idea to grow tiny angels had been an excellent one, but without a team there to cut open the door, the only person to be targeted by the unleashed chibi-Angels would be Gendo himself.

Other sensors had identified that an intruder had managed to get into the new Central Dogma and was prowling around. Bizarrely, most of the sensors hadn't spotted him; it was only the weight sensor plates in the floors that had detected the massive weight.

Leaving matters in the hands of the very capable bridge crew, Rei Ayanami stalked the halls, determine to take her aggression out on the lone intruder...

The encounter between those two is either going to be very violent, or very steamy...

Both maybe?

As a side note, Darkraven has a PPE pool equal to his Physical Endurance. He's actually the son of the head of a Vangaurd cell. As he has no magical talent (unlike his brother, who is a very talented LLW), he was sent to the CS. His initial training in sorcerous knowledge gave him the mage version of Lore: Magic, and the small PPE pool was from alchemical treatments he was subjected to in order to try to spark the mystical capability that exists within every other member of his family. The goal was never realized, but the (admittedly tiny) pool remained, allowing him to use TW items on a limited basis.

I wanted to explain that before someone started yelling at me that a member of the Coalition States was using magic, and how wrong I am to write that in.

EDIT: Also, did anyone see this kind of ending coming? Because if you did, good on you. I didn't. As any writer or GM will tell you, sometimes the story writes itself.

wyrmraker wrote:I am still going. A little slower, now that the momentum is dwindling. Here goes...
********
Rei Ayanami was displeased. Most people would say that she wasn't an easy person to please, that she was a predominately unhappy person. That her displeasure was one of the founding principles of the universe running properly.

Their cynicism was fairly accurate. Instrumentality had been rough on Rei. After taking command of the process and granting it to Shinji (the Committe for Human Instrumentality had been most useful pawns for her purposes), she had held the Egg of Lilith in her hands as the sum of all human knowledge filtered itself through her. She was quite thankful that it was all human knowledge, and not merely the internet. The only people left in the world were Shinji, Asuka, Gendo, Kaworu Nagisa (who had managed to survive his own 'death' at Shinji's hands), and herself. Kaworu had turned out to be a fairly pleasant person, once they'd had the chance to talk.

Once Shinji had recovered from his ego barrier breaking, and Asuka stopped being ill from the massive neural feedback during the battle with the Main Production Evangelions, Shinji sat on the beach, gazing off into the distance, Misato's necklace cupped in his hands. Occasionally his shoulders would shake, and Rei knew through her connection to the Egg of Lilith that he was grieving the loss of his guardian and adopted big sister.

Elsewhere, Asuka was sitting on a broken wall, shellshocked over the events of the last few days. Between everything that had happened, her mind had shut down before she was stuffed back into Unit-2. The caring portion of her mother's soul bound within Unit-02's core managed to awake her enough to be able to fight the JSSDF forces. Nobody had expected the Main Production Eva units, much less their ability to regenerate like they had.

Gendo was holding the stump of his wrist close, while smoking a cigarette he'd liberated from a store that hadn't been immersed in LCL. He'd seen Yui emerge from Unit-01's core, berating him for not following her plans for Instrumentality. He himself had accused her of keeping secrets from him, of going too far with her version of Instrumentality, of abandoning him and their child, and then it all descended into a shouting match.

It ended with Yui slapping him, then ascending back into Unit-01's core. As soon as the plating closed, however, Gendo's own craftiness came into play.

Fuyutsuki had always objected to Yui's plan for Instrumentality, the fullness of which she never shared with Gendo. Many years later, Fuyutsuki ended up filling Gendo in on the entirety of Yui's plans, including her idea of taking as many souls as she could into Unit-01's core and flying off to seed a different planet with life.

Once the plating closed, explosive bolts attached to the undersides of the chest armor detonated, severing Unit-01's connection to the S2 organ that it had consumed from the fourteenth angel. In the same instant, charges along it's back went off, jettisoning the reserve batteries.

Instantly, Unit-01 shut down. The eyes ceased glowing, the chest armor buckled outwards, the stolen S2 organ hitting the LCL-stained earth between it's feet as the force of the explosives toppled the giant cyborg backwards.

"Sealed you," Gendo muttered in satisfaction as Unit-01 slammed through a building, shattering it completely before coming to a complete rest. "'A monument to all of humanity', my ass."

Then he got his pack of cigarettes, pulled a lighter out of his pocket ('Once a smoker, always a smoker,' he thought to himself), sat down on a wall, and lit up for the first time in well over a decade.

Once he'd gotten through three cigarettes (and the inevitable coughing fit), he shambled over to where Shinji was sitting on the beach. Plopping down next to his offspring, he said, "Shinji, I know I can never make up for what has happened. For how I sent you away to live with your teacher. For how I abandoned you for a decade. For how I treated you since you arrived in Tokyo-3. But I still want you to know that I'm very proud of you. You have defied the world's true governing force, and denied them their self-realized deification."

Gendo sighed, lighting another cigarette before he pulled a flask out of his jacket pocket. Then he frowned, realizing that he couldn't smoke and drink at the same time with only one hand. "This plan, called Instrumentality, was SEELE's plan to become gods. Your mother had a slightly different goal in mind. She wanted to become a god, and use Unit-01 to seed another world with human life. I disagreed with both the plans once I found out, and in order to be able to operate my own contingencies I sent you away."

Shigting slightly, Gendo stared out at what his son's gaze had fixed upon. The massive form of Rei Ayanami's grinning head that could be seen from orbit stared back.

"At any rate, what you do with the Instrumentality now is up to you, son. Humanity is united, now war, no pain, no lies. But at a tremendous cost. You can join them if you wish, remake them however you want, or even reverse all of this. It's up to you. But whatever you do, please know that I am extremely proud of you, and will help in any way I possibly can."

"I see", came the murmurred response. "Why did you do that just now?"

Gendo grunted, peeling the cap off his flask with his teeth before sipping the vodka. "Because Yui never trusted me with her entire plan. She knew I'd prevent it. I got the full plan out of Fuyutsuki, and took precautions."

"So she's trapped in Unit-01 again."

"Son, the only reason she was trapped in there in the first place was because she didn't want to come out. Our initial attempt to pull her out was what originally resulted in Rei."

Shinji grunted, his thumb absently rubbing Misato's blood off of the necklace. "What should I do now?"

"That's up to you, Shinji. Like I said, you could reset everything back to the way it was, or keep every living creature as a sea of LCL, immortal and united, but ultimately ineffectual. There is even the option of resetting the world into your personal playground. Basically, you're God right now. But whatever you decide, I will help you in what ways I can."

Rei noted that Shinji's AT-Field seemed to be coalescing, becoming more focused as he trickled his hand through the reddish yellow sea lapping at his feet. Standing, he donned the cross necklace and walked into the surf.

Within moments, the sea of LCL began to recede, She could sense people reforming even as time rewound a little. God had spoken, and His words were, "Not this."

Minutes later, most of the world had been restored, and Shinji walked back into the Geofront. Gendo followed, gently pulling Asuka with them. One by one, Shinji reformed the personnel of NERV, leaving a few of them with the knowledge of what had occurred.

At the end of it all, the inner walls of the White Egg glowing in resonance with his will and AT-Field, he stopped at the Cage. There was Misato's body, still deceased. He couldn't sense anything from her; resurrection was not possible. Tears in his eyes, he asked a few crew members to carry her body out.

Shinji dug her grave himself, and her tombstone read:
Katsuragi Misato
Dec 8, 1986 to Dec 19, 2015
A Better Sister Will Never Be Found

Later, after sending Gendo to discuss matters with workld leaders (and after Shinji was forced to excercise his will over Unit-01 at them), things settled down. Asuka got therapy for her many, many issues, Shinji began to get less passive aggressive after letting go of his grip on Godhood. Gendo managed to keep NERV as a militant arm of the United Nations, mostly as reserve combat troops in case the angels returned.

Rei had tried to get together with Shinji, and he let her down gently, saying that he was waiting for Asuka to be ready. She'd tried dating during college, but none of the men there could hold a candle to Shinji's gentleness, caring, and ferocity when it came to defending the few he cared for.

There was a night, during her junior year in college. Asuka, Shinji, and Rei had gotten together to catch up. Then they started taking about old times. And then the old, jokingly used insults began to fly. One thing led to another, and...

Yeah. Shinji was red-faced about the whole thing, Asuka just kind of smirked, and Rei wondered where Asuka knew how to fit *that* in *there*. Asuka only replied, "I've been to college before, y'know" and winked at her.

Sadly (in Rei's view), that night was never repeated. Shinji ebded up marrying Asuka, properly restarting NERV as a primary research and defense facility against a possible repeat of the angelic invasions. And then the car accident happened.

If the new Section 2 member hadn't been there, Asuka would have died. As it was, she had extensive damage to pretty much every portion of her body, and was, to this day, in a tank of LCL (not all of humanity was reversed) where her body could heal. Her AT-Field was present, which meant Rei knew her soul was there, but she feared that the brain damage might have been to great to recover from, even with advanced regeneration equipment. Shinji had held out hope that he could engineer a kind of mini-Instrumentality, and use that to bring Asuka out of her coma.

Gendo had been very useful and, true to his word, advised Shinji on how not to make the same mistakes he had. Shinji rehired Maya Ibuki, whose real job was to be the new NERV's conscience. Rei was already working there as a scientist specializing in Evangelion Core design, while Gendo took a voluntary reduction in position as the head bio-physicist. Others were trained for their positions, and trained well.

All of this effort had left a bitter taste in Rei Ayanami's mouth. The one man she wanted she couldn't have, even after his wife was brain dead. She remembered that one magical night, her one positive sexual experience. And she wanted that again.

And she had tried. Oh, how she had tried, only to be gently let down every single time by Shinji. But she still supported him, mostly as the brain behind the heavily remodeled Dummy Plug Project.

And a little while ago, she'd gotten a call that a lone intruder was making his way through NERV. Heavily armed, armored, clearly looking for something in there. And he'd locked Gendo in the Room of Gaulf after changing the codes; Gendo had been most impressed with the man's tactic.

Fortunately, Gendo had managed to fool the man, but his locking of the door also meant that the Minions couldn't be unleashed. Gendo's idea to grow tiny angels had been an excellent one, but without a team there to cut open the door, the only person to be targeted by the unleashed chibi-Angels would be Gendo himself.

Other sensors had identified that an intruder had managed to get into the new Central Dogma and was prowling around. Bizarrely, most of the sensors hadn't spotted him; it was only the weight sensor plates in the floors that had detected the massive weight.

Leaving matters in the hands of the very capable bridge crew, Rei Ayanami stalked the halls, determine to take her aggression out on the lone intruder...

Nicely done and I always knew that there was a high chance of Rei becoming a pyscho stalker, either the person she is stalking is either going to get lovings like he or she never had before or a slow, bloody agonzing death.

This one isn't quite a psycho stalker, just a woman who is pretty unhappy about certain details in her life.

She's still a bit psycho. But with the canon NGE background (I went with the original anime, not the manga or the Rebuild), it can be considered nearly miraculously amazing that anyone's even sane.

I think I'm on a roll.
********
Sensors were cast far and wide, all of them attempting to find Unit-01. Team Urzu had done well, fighting it mostly to a draw, but it had been the Sangheili fighters that had turned the tide. Even so, for a two hundred foot tall cyborg to simply disappear as if by magic...

Captain Stovesh swore under his breath. The very finest in extra-terrestrial sensor technologies couldn't find the Evangelion unit; all records pulled from every one of those worlds had no listing of that capability in any Evangelion's repertoire.

The reports of the ground assault were still coming in. The various teams were advancing, much faster with the Sanghieli forces backing them up.

Aleph team had gotten the farthest with the new equipment, but Stovesh had to wonder just how sane Darkraven really was after he caught sight of the seven foot tall teddy bears that were armed to the teeth. According to the tech specs his head engineer had managed to hack out of the computer, they were small, lightweight powered armors. Responsive, bulletproof, equipped with light energy shielding, and requiring no training to use; almost perfect armors for a ground invasion. If only the voice filter could be disengaged...
***
Deep within the bowels of the Geofront, Darkraven wasn't a happy person. It turned out that Shinji Ikari was working towards an Instrumentality on a very tiny scale, the angels were probably going to keep coming, Third Impact had already happened over a decade ago, and Gendo Ikari had totally faked him out. He made a note to have medical sensors installed in his armor at a later date.

In short, the UEsG forces were the bad guys this time. And he refused to returned to his birth dimension because he hated feeling used in that way by his government.

"Miss Ibuki, I'd like to ask to use your comm gear to contact my ship. I need to explain to them that the invasion needs to end, and that we acted on bad intel."

"I suppose," Maya murmurred. "Will you actually call this whole thing off?"

The massive figure shrugged; Maya marveled at just how responsive the suit was. "I can try. The actual order is up to the captain, but I'm pretty sure he knows how much of a mess this is."

"Maya, this is Shinji," the voice came as the quantum bubble communcations array sparked to life. "This battle is unsustainable. I am sending you what I believe to be their command frequencies. Tell the UN to call them, get them to call off the attack. I will retreat and regroup."

The radio cut off, leaving Maya and Darkraven staring. Darkraven spoke first with, "Huh."

"Damn. I thought we were doing better than that. Let me power up the radio. What's your command frequency?"

"Just let me jack my suit into the radio; all the codes are inside, and the suit will automatically tune in."

Thirty-eight seconds later, "Sherman, this is Aleph-7. Confirmation signal B3120. Respond immediately."

"Sherma, this is Captain Stovesh. What is your condition, Aleph-7?"

"Sir, it's a FUBAR. Repeat, this is a FUBAR. Call off the invasion, sir. I strongly recommend recalling all troops immediately. Third Impact happened thirteen years ago, the angels are a recurring issue, and there is a plan for a n Instrumentality, it's not the world-ending thing we were wanting to head off."

"Wait, what? What do you mean? Explain, Aleph-7."

"Sir, Shinji Ikari is the commander here, and I have made contact with Maya Ibuki. I strongly recommend the diplomatic corps be sent at once."

There was a long silence, and then, "Understood, Aleph-7. The recall order will be given. However, given the reinforcements, I am not expecting the combat to end swiftly."

"What reinforcements, Captain?"

"The Ascendant Retribution. The ground troops are a mixed bag of Sanghieli, Unggoy, and a pack of Yanme'e Unmutuals. Roughly two hundred troops total. And they all seem to be really up for this."

"Argh," Darkraven commented. "Understood, Captain. Please do what you... Oh holy *@%^!"

Maya flinched away as an AT-Field slammed into the man's armor, actually rocking it as he rolled away, dropping something at her feet. A second later, a small field of hexagonal barriers formed into a dome around her, and fragments from the desk he'd bounced off of had deflected off of it.

"Captain Stovesh?" she asked into the radio. "This is Lieutenant Commander Ibuki. I have explained to Master Sergeant Darkraven our end. I will also be letting Commander Ikari know, and as soon as your forces begin retreating, I'm sure he will order the same. Please confirm."

"Stovesh here. I am sending the order now, ma'am. And what the hell is going on over there?"

"It seems that the head of our AI unit has attacked the Master Sergeant. He dropped some sort of bubble shield thing around me, so I'm safe."
***
"Seriously?" Stovesh asked incredulously even as the command center began issuing the recall orders.

"Sir?" the communications officer said, catching his attention. "We have the voices identified. Putting them on screen now."

Stovesh watched as the computer identified the participants.

Ayanami: "Die, invader!" she snarled.
Aleph-7: "Not gonna happen, girly! I'm here on a mission of peace!"
The sound of metal tearing was heard, followed by a crash, then the distinctive report of Darkraven's rail gun going off twice.
Aleph-7: "AT-Field, eh? Neat. Kinda surprised that an anti-tank round was stopped... Crap! Get offa me!"
Ayanami: "Hell no, scumbag!" Sounds of reinforced flesh pounding on tank-grade armor. "You seem to be leading these jerks, you get to pay!"
Sounds of melee combat, noted punches being parried by armored forearms.
Aleph-7: "Oh, you did NOT just go there!"
Ayanami: "Oh, I went there! And I took pictures!"
Ibuki: "Awwww, girrrrrrlllll!"

The comm officer looked at the captain, who was pinching the bridge of his nose in consternation while groaning.
***

wyrmraker wrote:Aleph-7: "Oh, you did NOT just go there!"
Ayanami: "Oh, I went there! And I took pictures!"
Ibuki: "Awwww, girrrrrrlllll!"

Did we just go blue here?

Is Aleph-7 going to need a cigarette after this?

Ah, the fog of war...arguably the most tragic casualties have been those AFTER the armistice/ceasefire went into effect....

SRoss wrote:

wyrmraker wrote:Aleph-7: "Oh, you did NOT just go there!"
Ayanami: "Oh, I went there! And I took pictures!"
Ibuki: "Awwww, girrrrrrlllll!"

Did we just go blue here?

Is Aleph-7 going to need a cigarette after this?

I'm thinking more like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke9wtbzGjCI

Maybe a drink, if Aleph-7 were allowed to drink. He tends to black out when drunk and reprogram stuff. Imagine the entirety of Chi-Town full of skelebots doing the Chicken Dance. Or the carriers on the SDF-1 full of pilotless destroids doing stripper pole tricks.

Chronicler wrote:

SRoss wrote:

wyrmraker wrote:Aleph-7: "Oh, you did NOT just go there!"
Ayanami: "Oh, I went there! And I took pictures!"
Ibuki: "Awwww, girrrrrrlllll!"

Did we just go blue here?

Is Aleph-7 going to need a cigarette after this?

I'm thinking more like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke9wtbzGjCI

Seriously, someone get Ayanami the number for the match service Minmei uses.

Naomi: "Maybe we can set her up with Captain Zola?"

wyrmraker wrote:Maybe a drink, if Aleph-7 were allowed to drink. He tends to black out when drunk and reprogram stuff. Imagine the entirety of Chi-Town full of skelebots doing the Chicken Dance. Or the carriers on the SDF-1 full of pilotless destroids doing stripper pole tricks.

Oh no...not the conga line!

Okay, almost finished with my bit. But this is what I have today.
********
Darkraven rolled backwards, away from the tiny dynamo of destruction. Ibuki had been shielded (he was incredibly tickled that he had been issued a supply of experimental gear from ONI for field testing), and all he had to deal with was the near-albino who could somehow utilize an AT-Field both offensively and defensively. His rail gun was ineffective, and his remaining missile was an armor-piercing model; she was far too agile for it to be effective. The room was too small to be using vibro-swords, and the anti-personnel laser would most likely punch through hundreds of feet of rock on a missed shot. The armor of the Silverwolf was taking a nasty beating, but he could tell that he was the better fighter than the girl. If he could only figure out how the AT-Field could be countered, he could gain the upper hand.

Lunging forward, he launched his remaining missile at the wall, blasting open a hole which he promptly dived through. Rolling into a crouch, he fired at the girl again with his rail gun. He noticed that, unlike the security forces above, she felt none of the impact through her field. She walked forward, smirking as hyper-dense slugs fired at more than three times the speed of sound deflected away from her.

She leaped over the edge of the jagged hole, kicking at his head. He managed to parry the leg with his forearm shield, but his armor's damage control systems screamed at him.

His counterattack landed a punch in the center of her chest, launching her away from him. Landing lightly, her AT-Field flexed, and a hexagonal column of yellow force shattered what was left of a forearm shield; his desperate parry had kept the attack from probably shattering his armor's sensor suite and visor.

"You're going to have to hit me harder than that to turn me on, miss," he called out, a slight leer in his voice.

The girl's smirk turned into a frown as her fists clenched. "This is combat, not flirting. Even something like you should know the difference," she snarled out.

"Combat, flirting, battle, foreplay, war, dancing... It's amazing how many of these things can be so easily likened together," he replied, tapping a couple of items on his armor. Instantly, dozens of slimy tentacles formed over his armor, squirming as the Armor Bizarre came into effect.

Blanching even more pale than she already was, she lunged to her right, tearing open a panel and pushing a few buttons. Darkraven was caught entirely unawares as jets of flame hidden in the ceiling went off, dousing him in napalm.

"The f***, b****?!" he screamed.

"You're a tentacle monster, I'm japanese!" she retorted hotly. "I've seen enough hentai to know where this is going!"

"Dammit, it's a spell! It's just a wierd armor spell!"

"F*** that! You kill that s*** with FIRE!"

Rolling backwards, he accessed the suit's inertial mapping unit. Thankfully, he had retreated back towards the opening in Terminal dogma. Turning, he ran at full speed towards the doorway. Still on fire.

Activating the antipersonnel laser, the door was cut from it's reinforced frame even as a half a ton of reinforced metal moving at ninety miles per hour slammed the doors out to make a splashdown in the lake of LCL. Sliding to a stop, the heels of the armor threw sparks as they skidded along the grating.

The girl jogged out, still looking angry. "Why do you run, little man?"

"Because you're going to end up injuring more than me?" he responded. "Because you're angry, and that seems to be a nasty theme for you?"

"I can see that," she shrugged, stretching slightly. "It's too bad you're going to die here; you seem creative and interesting."

"Me? Nope, boring as dry paint," Darkraven snarked out. "I think you have unresolved issues, miss."

Ducking, feeling his slight reserves once more refilling (the Armor Bizarre spell had sucked down over half of his supply), he fired his laser again, this time at the grating under her feet. Leaping, she managed to dodge the grate falling out from under her, kicking his armor in the head. His impact sensors noted that the kick was a little higher than human normal, and he theorized that the AT-Field could only be used in certain ways, and only so many purposes could take effect at one time. Clearly she had used her field to propel herself, but not to reinforce her body.

Snarling, the bruise on her leg from impacting the armor already beginning to heal, she flipped over the armor, focusing her AT-Field into a punch, blasting the armored plating along his spine. He lurched forward from the impact, but she didn't see his foot swing up behind him, and her head smacked into the boot.

Crumpling, she attempted to roll away from the armor, her head in absolute agony, her vision blurred from the concussion as he staggered away from her, swiveling as he hit open air where he predicted she'd be. Backstepping fast, he saw her getting up off of the grating, shaking her head slightly.

Gripping the grating, very angry at this *mortal* that had dared challenge her, her inner Lillith screaming for the extradimensional invader's blood as her field concentrated. Flexing with everything she had, she could feel his AT-Field interact with her own. She could sense that he was a human in a suit, that he was skilled and powerful. And then there was his otherworldliness, hanging around him like an aura of wrongness.

And then her field tore apart the grating, dropping him into the lake of LCL. There was a huge splash, some ripples, and then nothing.

Breathing heavily, Rei stood up slowly, reigning in her emotions. Her arm felt off, and she realized that she'd used her AT-Field too much. The barrier of her soul had been strained by the battle with the outlander, and she was at risk of dissolving. She would be able to reform herself, but that was beside the point. It had happened before, and was annoying. But she didn't want to relax before that man's corpse was cooling before her eyes. Preferably at her hands.

Scanning the LCL, she peered into the cloudy fluid trying to see where the massive suit might have landed. The LCL wasn't too deep there, maybe forty meters. Unfortunately her AT-Field was weak, so she couldn't use it to sense for him; her field was focused exclusively on keeping her nephilem body together.

Nothing. No movement of the LCL short of the usual tidal action. No shadows under the surface. She frowned. Fuyutsuki had taught her well. "If there's no body," he once said, "don't assume they're dead."

And then her body went rigid as an electrical charge bypassed her AT-Field, it's alien origin violating her nervous system. As she collapsed, she saw a man-sized figure under the grating, a crackling rod in his hand that was applied to her ankle.
***
Darkraven was now extremely angry. He'd had to ditch his beloved Silverwolf at the bottom of the blood-smelling lake. His original training in the CS Navy had included American Empire Navy SEAL training. That, combined with a Breath Without Air TW rebreather, allowed him to float to the surface under the grating, where the issued S-11 Stun Baton could be used to it's fullest effect. Of course, after it had been refitted with a protoculture cell...

Once the girl collapsed onto the grating, twitching from the voltage, Darkraven pulled himself up onto the metal mesh. The girl's eyes manage to track him, even through the concussion and the coruscating electricity. Putting the stun baton at the base of her neck, he checked her vitals. Once he determined that she was in no danger, he cuffed her, saying, "Sorry about the discomfort, miss. I really don't want to repeat that fight outside of my armor."

He could feel her eyes, no longer glaring but rather neutral, now eyeing her opponent, shorn of a half a ton of armor, now dreeed in what appeared to be a flight suit. Her limbs twitched, less randomly, more testingly. He sat back, sighing heavily as he rolled up his left sleeve. From a pouch on his belt, he pulled out a pair of pliers and began removing the three inch long sliver of metal from his forearm where the destroyed forearm shield had breached the shell.

"I have a question," she asked, her body no more under control."

"Ask away," he grunted, finally extracting the jagged shard from his arm.

"Why are you here? Why are your men attacking us? And why spare me when I am at your mercy?"

He sighed as he rolled a bandage around his forearm. "We are a multi-dimensional exploration taskforce. We also work to prevent Third Impact on worlds where NERV is combatting the angels. We acted on bad intel, expecting your version of NERV to be as much of a pushover as all of the others.

"As for your last question," he sighed out, finally finishing binding his wound, "contrary to popular belief, I get no pleasure from the act of taking a life. I get a sense of satisfaction from performing my duties, and get a lot of pleasure from keeping the enemies of my adopted world at bay. But killing itself? I am willing to go so far as to say that almost nobody in the UEsG derives pleasure from having to kill someone."

"I see. Thank you for explaining," she mumbled calmly. "Could you please conduct me to the laboratory? I have specific medical requirements."

wyrmraker wrote:I am still going. A little slower, now that the momentum is dwindling. Here goes...
********
Rei Ayanami was displeased. Most people would say that she wasn't an easy person to please, that she was a predominately unhappy person. That her displeasure was one of the founding principles of the universe running properly.

Their cynicism was fairly accurate. Instrumentality had been rough on Rei. After taking command of the process and granting it to Shinji (the Committe for Human Instrumentality had been most useful pawns for her purposes), she had held the Egg of Lilith in her hands as the sum of all human knowledge filtered itself through her. She was quite thankful that it was all human knowledge, and not merely the internet. The only people left in the world were Shinji, Asuka, Gendo, Kaworu Nagisa (who had managed to survive his own 'death' at Shinji's hands), and herself. Kaworu had turned out to be a fairly pleasant person, once they'd had the chance to talk.

Once Shinji had recovered from his ego barrier breaking, and Asuka stopped being ill from the massive neural feedback during the battle with the Main Production Evangelions, Shinji sat on the beach, gazing off into the distance, Misato's necklace cupped in his hands. Occasionally his shoulders would shake, and Rei knew through her connection to the Egg of Lilith that he was grieving the loss of his guardian and adopted big sister.

Elsewhere, Asuka was sitting on a broken wall, shellshocked over the events of the last few days. Between everything that had happened, her mind had shut down before she was stuffed back into Unit-2. The caring portion of her mother's soul bound within Unit-02's core managed to awake her enough to be able to fight the JSSDF forces. Nobody had expected the Main Production Eva units, much less their ability to regenerate like they had.

Gendo was holding the stump of his wrist close, while smoking a cigarette he'd liberated from a store that hadn't been immersed in LCL. He'd seen Yui emerge from Unit-01's core, berating him for not following her plans for Instrumentality. He himself had accused her of keeping secrets from him, of going too far with her version of Instrumentality, of abandoning him and their child, and then it all descended into a shouting match.

It ended with Yui slapping him, then ascending back into Unit-01's core. As soon as the plating closed, however, Gendo's own craftiness came into play.

Fuyutsuki had always objected to Yui's plan for Instrumentality, the fullness of which she never shared with Gendo. Many years later, Fuyutsuki ended up filling Gendo in on the entirety of Yui's plans, including her idea of taking as many souls as she could into Unit-01's core and flying off to seed a different planet with life.

Once the plating closed, explosive bolts attached to the undersides of the chest armor detonated, severing Unit-01's connection to the S2 organ that it had consumed from the fourteenth angel. In the same instant, charges along it's back went off, jettisoning the reserve batteries.

Instantly, Unit-01 shut down. The eyes ceased glowing, the chest armor buckled outwards, the stolen S2 organ hitting the LCL-stained earth between it's feet as the force of the explosives toppled the giant cyborg backwards.

"Sealed you," Gendo muttered in satisfaction as Unit-01 slammed through a building, shattering it completely before coming to a complete rest. "'A monument to all of humanity', my ass."

Then he got his pack of cigarettes, pulled a lighter out of his pocket ('Once a smoker, always a smoker,' he thought to himself), sat down on a wall, and lit up for the first time in well over a decade.

Once he'd gotten through three cigarettes (and the inevitable coughing fit), he shambled over to where Shinji was sitting on the beach. Plopping down next to his offspring, he said, "Shinji, I know I can never make up for what has happened. For how I sent you away to live with your teacher. For how I abandoned you for a decade. For how I treated you since you arrived in Tokyo-3. But I still want you to know that I'm very proud of you. You have defied the world's true governing force, and denied them their self-realized deification."

Gendo sighed, lighting another cigarette before he pulled a flask out of his jacket pocket. Then he frowned, realizing that he couldn't smoke and drink at the same time with only one hand. "This plan, called Instrumentality, was SEELE's plan to become gods. Your mother had a slightly different goal in mind. She wanted to become a god, and use Unit-01 to seed another world with human life. I disagreed with both the plans once I found out, and in order to be able to operate my own contingencies I sent you away."

Shigting slightly, Gendo stared out at what his son's gaze had fixed upon. The massive form of Rei Ayanami's grinning head that could be seen from orbit stared back.

"At any rate, what you do with the Instrumentality now is up to you, son. Humanity is united, now war, no pain, no lies. But at a tremendous cost. You can join them if you wish, remake them however you want, or even reverse all of this. It's up to you. But whatever you do, please know that I am extremely proud of you, and will help in any way I possibly can."

"I see", came the murmurred response. "Why did you do that just now?"

Gendo grunted, peeling the cap off his flask with his teeth before sipping the vodka. "Because Yui never trusted me with her entire plan. She knew I'd prevent it. I got the full plan out of Fuyutsuki, and took precautions."

"So she's trapped in Unit-01 again."

"Son, the only reason she was trapped in there in the first place was because she didn't want to come out. Our initial attempt to pull her out was what originally resulted in Rei."

Shinji grunted, his thumb absently rubbing Misato's blood off of the necklace. "What should I do now?"

"That's up to you, Shinji. Like I said, you could reset everything back to the way it was, or keep every living creature as a sea of LCL, immortal and united, but ultimately ineffectual. There is even the option of resetting the world into your personal playground. Basically, you're God right now. But whatever you decide, I will help you in what ways I can."

Rei noted that Shinji's AT-Field seemed to be coalescing, becoming more focused as he trickled his hand through the reddish yellow sea lapping at his feet. Standing, he donned the cross necklace and walked into the surf.

Within moments, the sea of LCL began to recede, She could sense people reforming even as time rewound a little. God had spoken, and His words were, "Not this."

Minutes later, most of the world had been restored, and Shinji walked back into the Geofront. Gendo followed, gently pulling Asuka with them. One by one, Shinji reformed the personnel of NERV, leaving a few of them with the knowledge of what had occurred.

At the end of it all, the inner walls of the White Egg glowing in resonance with his will and AT-Field, he stopped at the Cage. There was Misato's body, still deceased. He couldn't sense anything from her; resurrection was not possible. Tears in his eyes, he asked a few crew members to carry her body out.

Shinji dug her grave himself, and her tombstone read:
Katsuragi Misato
Dec 8, 1986 to Dec 19, 2015
A Better Sister Will Never Be Found

Later, after sending Gendo to discuss matters with workld leaders (and after Shinji was forced to excercise his will over Unit-01 at them), things settled down. Asuka got therapy for her many, many issues, Shinji began to get less passive aggressive after letting go of his grip on Godhood. Gendo managed to keep NERV as a militant arm of the United Nations, mostly as reserve combat troops in case the angels returned.

Rei had tried to get together with Shinji, and he let her down gently, saying that he was waiting for Asuka to be ready. She'd tried dating during college, but none of the men there could hold a candle to Shinji's gentleness, caring, and ferocity when it came to defending the few he cared for.

There was a night, during her junior year in college. Asuka, Shinji, and Rei had gotten together to catch up. Then they started taking about old times. And then the old, jokingly used insults began to fly. One thing led to another, and...

Yeah. Shinji was red-faced about the whole thing, Asuka just kind of smirked, and Rei wondered where Asuka knew how to fit *that* in *there*. Asuka only replied, "I've been to college before, y'know" and winked at her.

Sadly (in Rei's view), that night was never repeated. Shinji ebded up marrying Asuka, properly restarting NERV as a primary research and defense facility against a possible repeat of the angelic invasions. And then the car accident happened.

If the new Section 2 member hadn't been there, Asuka would have died. As it was, she had extensive damage to pretty much every portion of her body, and was, to this day, in a tank of LCL (not all of humanity was reversed) where her body could heal. Her AT-Field was present, which meant Rei knew her soul was there, but she feared that the brain damage might have been to great to recover from, even with advanced regeneration equipment. Shinji had held out hope that he could engineer a kind of mini-Instrumentality, and use that to bring Asuka out of her coma.

Gendo had been very useful and, true to his word, advised Shinji on how not to make the same mistakes he had. Shinji rehired Maya Ibuki, whose real job was to be the new NERV's conscience. Rei was already working there as a scientist specializing in Evangelion Core design, while Gendo took a voluntary reduction in position as the head bio-physicist. Others were trained for their positions, and trained well.

All of this effort had left a bitter taste in Rei Ayanami's mouth. The one man she wanted she couldn't have, even after his wife was brain dead. She remembered that one magical night, her one positive sexual experience. And she wanted that again.

And she had tried. Oh, how she had tried, only to be gently let down every single time by Shinji. But she still supported him, mostly as the brain behind the heavily remodeled Dummy Plug Project.

And a little while ago, she'd gotten a call that a lone intruder was making his way through NERV. Heavily armed, armored, clearly looking for something in there. And he'd locked Gendo in the Room of Gaulf after changing the codes; Gendo had been most impressed with the man's tactic.

Fortunately, Gendo had managed to fool the man, but his locking of the door also meant that the Minions couldn't be unleashed. Gendo's idea to grow tiny angels had been an excellent one, but without a team there to cut open the door, the only person to be targeted by the unleashed chibi-Angels would be Gendo himself.

Other sensors had identified that an intruder had managed to get into the new Central Dogma and was prowling around. Bizarrely, most of the sensors hadn't spotted him; it was only the weight sensor plates in the floors that had detected the massive weight.

Leaving matters in the hands of the very capable bridge crew, Rei Ayanami stalked the halls, determine to take her aggression out on the lone intruder...

Have I mention how good you are?

wyrmraker wrote:This one isn't quite a psycho stalker, just a woman who is pretty unhappy about certain details in her life.

She's still a bit psycho. But with the canon NGE background (I went with the original anime, not the manga or the Rebuild), it can be considered nearly miraculously amazing that anyone's even sane.

So true.

wyrmraker wrote:I think I'm on a roll.
********
Sensors were cast far and wide, all of them attempting to find Unit-01. Team Urzu had done well, fighting it mostly to a draw, but it had been the Sangheili fighters that had turned the tide. Even so, for a two hundred foot tall cyborg to simply disappear as if by magic...

Captain Stovesh swore under his breath. The very finest in extra-terrestrial sensor technologies couldn't find the Evangelion unit; all records pulled from every one of those worlds had no listing of that capability in any Evangelion's repertoire.

The reports of the ground assault were still coming in. The various teams were advancing, much faster with the Sanghieli forces backing them up.

Aleph team had gotten the farthest with the new equipment, but Stovesh had to wonder just how sane Darkraven really was after he caught sight of the seven foot tall teddy bears that were armed to the teeth. According to the tech specs his head engineer had managed to hack out of the computer, they were small, lightweight powered armors. Responsive, bulletproof, equipped with light energy shielding, and requiring no training to use; almost perfect armors for a ground invasion. If only the voice filter could be disengaged...
***
Deep within the bowels of the Geofront, Darkraven wasn't a happy person. It turned out that Shinji Ikari was working towards an Instrumentality on a very tiny scale, the angels were probably going to keep coming, Third Impact had already happened over a decade ago, and Gendo Ikari had totally faked him out. He made a note to have medical sensors installed in his armor at a later date.

In short, the UEsG forces were the bad guys this time. And he refused to returned to his birth dimension because he hated feeling used in that way by his government.

"Miss Ibuki, I'd like to ask to use your comm gear to contact my ship. I need to explain to them that the invasion needs to end, and that we acted on bad intel."

"I suppose," Maya murmurred. "Will you actually call this whole thing off?"

The massive figure shrugged; Maya marveled at just how responsive the suit was. "I can try. The actual order is up to the captain, but I'm pretty sure he knows how much of a mess this is."

"Maya, this is Shinji," the voice came as the quantum bubble communcations array sparked to life. "This battle is unsustainable. I am sending you what I believe to be their command frequencies. Tell the UN to call them, get them to call off the attack. I will retreat and regroup."

The radio cut off, leaving Maya and Darkraven staring. Darkraven spoke first with, "Huh."

"Damn. I thought we were doing better than that. Let me power up the radio. What's your command frequency?"

"Just let me jack my suit into the radio; all the codes are inside, and the suit will automatically tune in."

Thirty-eight seconds later, "Sherman, this is Aleph-7. Confirmation signal B3120. Respond immediately."

"Sherma, this is Captain Stovesh. What is your condition, Aleph-7?"

"Sir, it's a FUBAR. Repeat, this is a FUBAR. Call off the invasion, sir. I strongly recommend recalling all troops immediately. Third Impact happened thirteen years ago, the angels are a recurring issue, and there is a plan for a n Instrumentality, it's not the world-ending thing we were wanting to head off."

"Wait, what? What do you mean? Explain, Aleph-7."

"Sir, Shinji Ikari is the commander here, and I have made contact with Maya Ibuki. I strongly recommend the diplomatic corps be sent at once."

There was a long silence, and then, "Understood, Aleph-7. The recall order will be given. However, given the reinforcements, I am not expecting the combat to end swiftly."

"What reinforcements, Captain?"

"The Ascendant Retribution. The ground troops are a mixed bag of Sanghieli, Unggoy, and a pack of Yanme'e Unmutuals. Roughly two hundred troops total. And they all seem to be really up for this."

"Argh," Darkraven commented. "Understood, Captain. Please do what you... Oh holy *@%^!"

Maya flinched away as an AT-Field slammed into the man's armor, actually rocking it as he rolled away, dropping something at her feet. A second later, a small field of hexagonal barriers formed into a dome around her, and fragments from the desk he'd bounced off of had deflected off of it.

"Captain Stovesh?" she asked into the radio. "This is Lieutenant Commander Ibuki. I have explained to Master Sergeant Darkraven our end. I will also be letting Commander Ikari know, and as soon as your forces begin retreating, I'm sure he will order the same. Please confirm."

"Stovesh here. I am sending the order now, ma'am. And what the hell is going on over there?"

"It seems that the head of our AI unit has attacked the Master Sergeant. He dropped some sort of bubble shield thing around me, so I'm safe."
***
"Seriously?" Stovesh asked incredulously even as the command center began issuing the recall orders.

"Sir?" the communications officer said, catching his attention. "We have the voices identified. Putting them on screen now."

Stovesh watched as the computer identified the participants.

Ayanami: "Die, invader!" she snarled.
Aleph-7: "Not gonna happen, girly! I'm here on a mission of peace!"
The sound of metal tearing was heard, followed by a crash, then the distinctive report of Darkraven's rail gun going off twice.
Aleph-7: "AT-Field, eh? Neat. Kinda surprised that an anti-tank round was stopped... Crap! Get offa me!"
Ayanami: "Hell no, scumbag!" Sounds of reinforced flesh pounding on tank-grade armor. "You seem to be leading these jerks, you get to pay!"
Sounds of melee combat, noted punches being parried by armored forearms.
Aleph-7: "Oh, you did NOT just go there!"
Ayanami: "Oh, I went there! And I took pictures!"
Ibuki: "Awwww, girrrrrrlllll!"

The comm officer looked at the captain, who was pinching the bridge of his nose in consternation while groaning.
***

SRoss wrote:

wyrmraker wrote:Aleph-7: "Oh, you did NOT just go there!"
Ayanami: "Oh, I went there! And I took pictures!"
Ibuki: "Awwww, girrrrrrlllll!"

Did we just go blue here?

Is Aleph-7 going to need a cigarette after this?

taalismn wrote:Ah, the fog of war...arguably the most tragic casualties have been those AFTER the armistice/ceasefire went into effect....

Won't be surprised.

Chronicler wrote:

SRoss wrote:

wyrmraker wrote:Aleph-7: "Oh, you did NOT just go there!"
Ayanami: "Oh, I went there! And I took pictures!"
Ibuki: "Awwww, girrrrrrlllll!"

Did we just go blue here?

Is Aleph-7 going to need a cigarette after this?

I'm thinking more like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke9wtbzGjCI

Love that episode! It was one of they favorite!

wyrmraker wrote:Maybe a drink, if Aleph-7 were allowed to drink. He tends to black out when drunk and reprogram stuff. Imagine the entirety of Chi-Town full of skelebots doing the Chicken Dance. Or the carriers on the SDF-1 full of pilotless destroids doing stripper pole tricks.

SRoss wrote:

Chronicler wrote:

SRoss wrote:

wyrmraker wrote:Aleph-7: "Oh, you did NOT just go there!"
Ayanami: "Oh, I went there! And I took pictures!"
Ibuki: "Awwww, girrrrrrlllll!"

Did we just go blue here?

Is Aleph-7 going to need a cigarette after this?

I'm thinking more like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke9wtbzGjCI

Seriously, someone get Ayanami the number for the match service Minmei uses.

Naomi: "Maybe we can set her up with Captain Zola?"

taalismn wrote:

wyrmraker wrote:Maybe a drink, if Aleph-7 were allowed to drink. He tends to black out when drunk and reprogram stuff. Imagine the entirety of Chi-Town full of skelebots doing the Chicken Dance. Or the carriers on the SDF-1 full of pilotless destroids doing stripper pole tricks.

Oh no...not the conga line!

wyrmraker wrote:Okay, almost finished with my bit. But this is what I have today.
********
Darkraven rolled backwards, away from the tiny dynamo of destruction. Ibuki had been shielded (he was incredibly tickled that he had been issued a supply of experimental gear from ONI for field testing), and all he had to deal with was the near-albino who could somehow utilize an AT-Field both offensively and defensively. His rail gun was ineffective, and his remaining missile was an armor-piercing model; she was far too agile for it to be effective. The room was too small to be using vibro-swords, and the anti-personnel laser would most likely punch through hundreds of feet of rock on a missed shot. The armor of the Silverwolf was taking a nasty beating, but he could tell that he was the better fighter than the girl. If he could only figure out how the AT-Field could be countered, he could gain the upper hand.

Lunging forward, he launched his remaining missile at the wall, blasting open a hole which he promptly dived through. Rolling into a crouch, he fired at the girl again with his rail gun. He noticed that, unlike the security forces above, she felt none of the impact through her field. She walked forward, smirking as hyper-dense slugs fired at more than three times the speed of sound deflected away from her.

She leaped over the edge of the jagged hole, kicking at his head. He managed to parry the leg with his forearm shield, but his armor's damage control systems screamed at him.

His counterattack landed a punch in the center of her chest, launching her away from him. Landing lightly, her AT-Field flexed, and a hexagonal column of yellow force shattered what was left of a forearm shield; his desperate parry had kept the attack from probably shattering his armor's sensor suite and visor.

"You're going to have to hit me harder than that to turn me on, miss," he called out, a slight leer in his voice.

The girl's smirk turned into a frown as her fists clenched. "This is combat, not flirting. Even something like you should know the difference," she snarled out.

"Combat, flirting, battle, foreplay, war, dancing... It's amazing how many of these things can be so easily likened together," he replied, tapping a couple of items on his armor. Instantly, dozens of slimy tentacles formed over his armor, squirming as the Armor Bizarre came into effect.

Blanching even more pale than she already was, she lunged to her right, tearing open a panel and pushing a few buttons. Darkraven was caught entirely unawares as jets of flame hidden in the ceiling went off, dousing him in napalm.

"The f***, b****?!" he screamed.

"You're a tentacle monster, I'm japanese!" she retorted hotly. "I've seen enough hentai to know where this is going!"

"Dammit, it's a spell! It's just a wierd armor spell!"

"F*** that! You kill that s*** with FIRE!"

Rolling backwards, he accessed the suit's inertial mapping unit. Thankfully, he had retreated back towards the opening in Terminal dogma. Turning, he ran at full speed towards the doorway. Still on fire.

Activating the antipersonnel laser, the door was cut from it's reinforced frame even as a half a ton of reinforced metal moving at ninety miles per hour slammed the doors out to make a splashdown in the lake of LCL. Sliding to a stop, the heels of the armor threw sparks as they skidded along the grating.

The girl jogged out, still looking angry. "Why do you run, little man?"

"Because you're going to end up injuring more than me?" he responded. "Because you're angry, and that seems to be a nasty theme for you?"

"I can see that," she shrugged, stretching slightly. "It's too bad you're going to die here; you seem creative and interesting."

"Me? Nope, boring as dry paint," Darkraven snarked out. "I think you have unresolved issues, miss."

Ducking, feeling his slight reserves once more refilling (the Armor Bizarre spell had sucked down over half of his supply), he fired his laser again, this time at the grating under her feet. Leaping, she managed to dodge the grate falling out from under her, kicking his armor in the head. His impact sensors noted that the kick was a little higher than human normal, and he theorized that the AT-Field could only be used in certain ways, and only so many purposes could take effect at one time. Clearly she had used her field to propel herself, but not to reinforce her body.

Snarling, the bruise on her leg from impacting the armor already beginning to heal, she flipped over the armor, focusing her AT-Field into a punch, blasting the armored plating along his spine. He lurched forward from the impact, but she didn't see his foot swing up behind him, and her head smacked into the boot.

Crumpling, she attempted to roll away from the armor, her head in absolute agony, her vision blurred from the concussion as he staggered away from her, swiveling as he hit open air where he predicted she'd be. Backstepping fast, he saw her getting up off of the grating, shaking her head slightly.

Gripping the grating, very angry at this *mortal* that had dared challenge her, her inner Lillith screaming for the extradimensional invader's blood as her field concentrated. Flexing with everything she had, she could feel his AT-Field interact with her own. She could sense that he was a human in a suit, that he was skilled and powerful. And then there was his otherworldliness, hanging around him like an aura of wrongness.

And then her field tore apart the grating, dropping him into the lake of LCL. There was a huge splash, some ripples, and then nothing.

Breathing heavily, Rei stood up slowly, reigning in her emotions. Her arm felt off, and she realized that she'd used her AT-Field too much. The barrier of her soul had been strained by the battle with the outlander, and she was at risk of dissolving. She would be able to reform herself, but that was beside the point. It had happened before, and was annoying. But she didn't want to relax before that man's corpse was cooling before her eyes. Preferably at her hands.

Scanning the LCL, she peered into the cloudy fluid trying to see where the massive suit might have landed. The LCL wasn't too deep there, maybe forty meters. Unfortunately her AT-Field was weak, so she couldn't use it to sense for him; her field was focused exclusively on keeping her nephilem body together.

Nothing. No movement of the LCL short of the usual tidal action. No shadows under the surface. She frowned. Fuyutsuki had taught her well. "If there's no body," he once said, "don't assume they're dead."

And then her body went rigid as an electrical charge bypassed her AT-Field, it's alien origin violating her nervous system. As she collapsed, she saw a man-sized figure under the grating, a crackling rod in his hand that was applied to her ankle.
***
Darkraven was now extremely angry. He'd had to ditch his beloved Silverwolf at the bottom of the blood-smelling lake. His original training in the CS Navy had included American Empire Navy SEAL training. That, combined with a Breath Without Air TW rebreather, allowed him to float to the surface under the grating, where the issued S-11 Stun Baton could be used to it's fullest effect. Of course, after it had been refitted with a protoculture cell...

Once the girl collapsed onto the grating, twitching from the voltage, Darkraven pulled himself up onto the metal mesh. The girl's eyes manage to track him, even through the concussion and the coruscating electricity. Putting the stun baton at the base of her neck, he checked her vitals. Once he determined that she was in no danger, he cuffed her, saying, "Sorry about the discomfort, miss. I really don't want to repeat that fight outside of my armor."

He could feel her eyes, no longer glaring but rather neutral, now eyeing her opponent, shorn of a half a ton of armor, now dreeed in what appeared to be a flight suit. Her limbs twitched, less randomly, more testingly. He sat back, sighing heavily as he rolled up his left sleeve. From a pouch on his belt, he pulled out a pair of pliers and began removing the three inch long sliver of metal from his forearm where the destroyed forearm shield had breached the shell.

"I have a question," she asked, her body no more under control."

"Ask away," he grunted, finally extracting the jagged shard from his arm.

"Why are you here? Why are your men attacking us? And why spare me when I am at your mercy?"

He sighed as he rolled a bandage around his forearm. "We are a multi-dimensional exploration taskforce. We also work to prevent Third Impact on worlds where NERV is combatting the angels. We acted on bad intel, expecting your version of NERV to be as much of a pushover as all of the others.

"As for your last question," he sighed out, finally finishing binding his wound, "contrary to popular belief, I get no pleasure from the act of taking a life. I get a sense of satisfaction from performing my duties, and get a lot of pleasure from keeping the enemies of my adopted world at bay. But killing itself? I am willing to go so far as to say that almost nobody in the UEsG derives pleasure from having to kill someone."

"I see. Thank you for explaining," she mumbled calmly. "Could you please conduct me to the laboratory? I have specific medical requirements."

I can't say this enough. You are doing a great job at this. But honestly, I either was reading this wrong, or you just wrote it in such a was, in that I thought Shinji was the new Gendo.

I wrote it a bit ambiguously to give that impression, yes. A bit of confusion, to be explained later as small twists. I'm just glad you guys are enjoying it. I don't do funny very well, and this thread tends more towards funny than dramatic.

Almost on cue a trio of childlike voices chimed up from a seemingly empty corridor...

Tachikomas: "Hello Mr. Darkraven! The Major tasked us with medivac duties. Can we be of assistance?"

wyrmraker wrote:This one isn't quite a psycho stalker, just a woman who is pretty unhappy about certain details in her life.

She's still a bit psycho. But with the canon NGE background (I went with the original anime, not the manga or the Rebuild), it can be considered nearly miraculously amazing that anyone's even sane.

Ya I hear what you are saying and the scary thing is these insane assclowns have the power to remake reality.

The original anime was a mind screw and a half to say the lest which made it good in it's own twisted way.

I did write Gendo as he was originally described. A genius, tactical and diplomatic savant, or as near as you can get. Was he a jerk? Sure, he was. But never without purpose.

And I have one, maybe two chapters remaining in this scenario that has taken weeks to write. I plan to write them from the military angle.

wyrmraker wrote:I did write Gendo as he was originally described. A genius, tactical and diplomatic savant, or as near as you can get. Was he a jerk? Sure, he was. But never without purpose.

And I have one, maybe two chapters remaining in this scenario that has taken weeks to write. I plan to write them from the military angle.

Then the legal angle as NERV unleashes their lawyers on the UEsG?
"That's why we keep Neutron-S missiles for, isn't it?"
"Don't EVEN joke about it!"

No, the next-to-last-resort is the UEsG unleashing its own attorneys: legal-defense BOLOs. Trained by Phoenix Wright.

wyrmraker wrote:I wrote it a bit ambiguously to give that impression, yes. A bit of confusion, to be explained later as small twists. I'm just glad you guys are enjoying it. I don't do funny very well, and this thread tends more towards funny than dramatic.

Ahhh..., got you. Well good job on that part.

SRoss wrote:Almost on cue a trio of childlike voices chimed up from a seemingly empty corridor...

Tachikomas: "Hello Mr. Darkraven! The Major tasked us with medivac duties. Can we be of assistance?"

LOVE those guys!

Kargan3033 wrote:

wyrmraker wrote:This one isn't quite a psycho stalker, just a woman who is pretty unhappy about certain details in her life.

She's still a bit psycho. But with the canon NGE background (I went with the original anime, not the manga or the Rebuild), it can be considered nearly miraculously amazing that anyone's even sane.

Ya I hear what you are saying and the scary thing is these insane assclowns have the power to remake reality.

The original anime was a mind screw and a half to say the lest which made it good in it's own twisted way.

wyrmraker wrote:I did write Gendo as he was originally described. A genius, tactical and diplomatic savant, or as near as you can get. Was he a jerk? Sure, he was. But never without purpose.

And I have one, maybe two chapters remaining in this scenario that has taken weeks to write. I plan to write them from the military angle.

*Embrasing the Force* You will finish now and post them NOW.

taalismn wrote:

wyrmraker wrote:I did write Gendo as he was originally described. A genius, tactical and diplomatic savant, or as near as you can get. Was he a jerk? Sure, he was. But never without purpose.

And I have one, maybe two chapters remaining in this scenario that has taken weeks to write. I plan to write them from the military angle.

Then the legal angle as NERV unleashes their lawyers on the UEsG?
"That's why we keep Neutron-S missiles for, isn't it?"
"Don't EVEN joke about it!"

No, the next-to-last-resort is the UEsG unleashing its own attorneys: legal-defense BOLOs. Trained by Phoenix Wright.

Trust me, I'm working on it, Alpha11. I have to process the imagery in my head during the week (usually while I work), and then type it out on the weekend. I've also been saving it as a long .rtf document. It's up to 86kb so far, amazingly enough.

wyrmraker wrote:Trust me, I'm working on it, Alpha11. I have to process the imagery in my head during the week (usually while I work), and then type it out on the weekend. I've also been saving it as a long .rtf document. It's up to 86kb so far, amazingly enough.

Indeed...when you're really in the writing groove, the kb starts piling up fast.

wyrmraker wrote:Trust me, I'm working on it, Alpha11. I have to process the imagery in my head during the week (usually while I work), and then type it out on the weekend. I've also been saving it as a long .rtf document. It's up to 86kb so far, amazingly enough.

Ya, I know you are working hard, that's just my wishful thinking. It also shows how good you are when your readers start saying things like that!

taalismn wrote:

wyrmraker wrote:Trust me, I'm working on it, Alpha11. I have to process the imagery in my head during the week (usually while I work), and then type it out on the weekend. I've also been saving it as a long .rtf document. It's up to 86kb so far, amazingly enough.

Indeed...when you're really in the writing groove, the kb starts piling up fast.

SRoss wrote:Almost on cue a trio of childlike voices chimed up from a seemingly empty corridor...

Tachikomas: "Hello Mr. Darkraven! The Major tasked us with medivac duties. Can we be of assistance?"

Tachikomas?

'How do you do. I am a Tachikoma"

my favorite line from them is this one:
Tachikoma: Yeah! And you know that "existence of God" thing that I had trouble understanding before? I think I am starting to understand it now. Maybe, just maybe, it's a concept that's similar to a zero in mathematics. In other words, it's a symbol that denies the absence of meaning, the meaning that's necessitated by the delineation of one system from another. In analog, that's God. In digital, it's zero. what do you think? Also, our basic construction is digital, right? So for the time being, no matter how much data we accumulate, we'll never have a Ghost. But analog-based people like you, Batou-san, no matter how many digital components you add through cyberization or prosthetics, your Ghost will never be damaged. Plus, you can even die 'cause you've got a Ghost. You're so lucky. Tell me, what's it feel like to have a Ghost?
(note: ghost in this setting is used much like the term 'soul'.. it's the hard to define element of self-identity and individuality)

Kargan3033 wrote:

SRoss wrote:Almost on cue a trio of childlike voices chimed up from a seemingly empty corridor...

Tachikomas: "Hello Mr. Darkraven! The Major tasked us with medivac duties. Can we be of assistance?"

Tachikomas?

They're from Ghost In The Shell, with the ability to cloak like the Major, and a mostly non lethal loadout I thought they would be perfect for medivacing wounded from deep inside the Geofront.

Here is that whole existence of God thing. The look on Bato's face is priceless.

i don;t know about non-lethal..
and they've not had the greatest results as medivac..
around timecode 2:50
Tachikoma: [beat up looking, shoots the guards down a flight of stairs] How do you like that?
Saito: Moron! Have you forgotten that you've got somebody inside your pod?
Tachikoma: [wines] Aww! But I wanna fight some more!

Well as I recall, they have a machine gun and a grenade launcher, both of which can be loaded with non lethal ordinance. I'd like to think that knowing they're specifically medivac duty they might be a little more careful this time.

glitterboy2098 wrote:'How do you do. I am a Tachikoma"

my favorite line from them is this one:
Tachikoma: Yeah! And you know that "existence of God" thing that I had trouble understanding before? I think I am starting to understand it now. Maybe, just maybe, it's a concept that's similar to a zero in mathematics. In other words, it's a symbol that denies the absence of meaning, the meaning that's necessitated by the delineation of one system from another. In analog, that's God. In digital, it's zero. what do you think? Also, our basic construction is digital, right? So for the time being, no matter how much data we accumulate, we'll never have a Ghost. But analog-based people like you, Batou-san, no matter how many digital components you add through cyberization or prosthetics, your Ghost will never be damaged. Plus, you can even die 'cause you've got a Ghost. You're so lucky. Tell me, what's it feel like to have a Ghost?
(note: ghost in this setting is used much like the term 'soul'.. it's the hard to define element of self-identity and individuality)

...Tachikoma Days?

J.A.N.I.C.E.: (After a five minute philosophy debate with the Tachkomas) "So this is what a migraine feels like."

SRoss wrote:J.A.N.I.C.E.: (After a five minute philosophy debate with the Tachkomas) "So this is what a migraine feels like."

Like trying to discuss the meaning of the universe with a Buddha who's more interested in chasing butterflies?
Or trying to talk to a butterfly that channels Buddha?

glitterboy2098 wrote:'How do you do. I am a Tachikoma"

my favorite line from them is this one:
Tachikoma: Yeah! And you know that "existence of God" thing that I had trouble understanding before? I think I am starting to understand it now. Maybe, just maybe, it's a concept that's similar to a zero in mathematics. In other words, it's a symbol that denies the absence of meaning, the meaning that's necessitated by the delineation of one system from another. In analog, that's God. In digital, it's zero. what do you think? Also, our basic construction is digital, right? So for the time being, no matter how much data we accumulate, we'll never have a Ghost. But analog-based people like you, Batou-san, no matter how many digital components you add through cyberization or prosthetics, your Ghost will never be damaged. Plus, you can even die 'cause you've got a Ghost. You're so lucky. Tell me, what's it feel like to have a Ghost?
(note: ghost in this setting is used much like the term 'soul'.. it's the hard to define element of self-identity and individuality)

I would love to have a Tachikoma.

SRoss wrote:

Kargan3033 wrote:

SRoss wrote:Almost on cue a trio of childlike voices chimed up from a seemingly empty corridor...

Tachikomas: "Hello Mr. Darkraven! The Major tasked us with medivac duties. Can we be of assistance?"

Tachikomas?

They're from Ghost In The Shell, with the ability to cloak like the Major, and a mostly non lethal loadout I thought they would be perfect for medivacing wounded from deep inside the Geofront.

Here is that whole existence of God thing. The look on Bato's face is priceless.

Ya that was funny. Makes me want to re-watch the show.

glitterboy2098 wrote:i don;t know about non-lethal..
and they've not had the greatest results as medivac..
around timecode 2:50
Tachikoma: [beat up looking, shoots the guards down a flight of stairs] How do you like that?
Saito: Moron! Have you forgotten that you've got somebody inside your pod?
Tachikoma: [wines] Aww! But I wanna fight some more!

Ya, they usally care leathal rounds. Great fight scean.

SRoss wrote:Well as I recall, they have a machine gun and a grenade launcher, both of which can be loaded with non lethal ordinance. I'd like to think that knowing they're specifically medivac duty they might be a little more careful this time.

Well, if its their primary purpose in the mission, then I could see that. Though I would think it would be good ideal for them have live ammo so they could better protect themselves and their passenger.

taalismn wrote:

glitterboy2098 wrote:'How do you do. I am a Tachikoma"

my favorite line from them is this one:
Tachikoma: Yeah! And you know that "existence of God" thing that I had trouble understanding before? I think I am starting to understand it now. Maybe, just maybe, it's a concept that's similar to a zero in mathematics. In other words, it's a symbol that denies the absence of meaning, the meaning that's necessitated by the delineation of one system from another. In analog, that's God. In digital, it's zero. what do you think? Also, our basic construction is digital, right? So for the time being, no matter how much data we accumulate, we'll never have a Ghost. But analog-based people like you, Batou-san, no matter how many digital components you add through cyberization or prosthetics, your Ghost will never be damaged. Plus, you can even die 'cause you've got a Ghost. You're so lucky. Tell me, what's it feel like to have a Ghost?
(note: ghost in this setting is used much like the term 'soul'.. it's the hard to define element of self-identity and individuality)

...Tachikoma Days?

Those were fun to watch.

SRoss wrote:J.A.N.I.C.E.: (After a five minute philosophy debate with the Tachkomas) "So this is what a migraine feels like."

taalismn wrote:

SRoss wrote:J.A.N.I.C.E.: (After a five minute philosophy debate with the Tachkomas) "So this is what a migraine feels like."

Like trying to discuss the meaning of the universe with a Buddha who's more interested in chasing butterflies?
Or trying to talk to a butterfly that channels Buddha?

glitterboy2098 wrote:'How do you do. I am a Tachikoma"

my favorite line from them is this one:
Tachikoma: Yeah! And you know that "existence of God" thing that I had trouble understanding before? I think I am starting to understand it now. Maybe, just maybe, it's a concept that's similar to a zero in mathematics. In other words, it's a symbol that denies the absence of meaning, the meaning that's necessitated by the delineation of one system from another. In analog, that's God. In digital, it's zero. what do you think? Also, our basic construction is digital, right? So for the time being, no matter how much data we accumulate, we'll never have a Ghost. But analog-based people like you, Batou-san, no matter how many digital components you add through cyberization or prosthetics, your Ghost will never be damaged. Plus, you can even die 'cause you've got a Ghost. You're so lucky. Tell me, what's it feel like to have a Ghost?
(note: ghost in this setting is used much like the term 'soul'.. it's the hard to define element of self-identity and individuality)

Thanks for the info.

Alpha 11 wrote:

SRoss wrote:Well as I recall, they have a machine gun and a grenade launcher, both of which can be loaded with non lethal ordinance. I'd like to think that knowing they're specifically medivac duty they might be a little more careful this time.

Well, if its their primary purpose in the mission, then I could see that. Though I would think it would be good ideal for them have live ammo so they could better protect themselves and their passenger.

Well I did say MOSTLY non-lethal.

SRoss wrote:

Alpha 11 wrote:

SRoss wrote:Well as I recall, they have a machine gun and a grenade launcher, both of which can be loaded with non lethal ordinance. I'd like to think that knowing they're specifically medivac duty they might be a little more careful this time.

Well, if its their primary purpose in the mission, then I could see that. Though I would think it would be good ideal for them have live ammo so they could better protect themselves and their passenger.

Well I did say MOSTLY non-lethal.

"Groin shot."
"AUUUGHHHH!!"
"Is that considered lethal or non-lethal?"
"...mini-me is gone...!"

taalismn wrote:

SRoss wrote:

Alpha 11 wrote:

SRoss wrote:Well as I recall, they have a machine gun and a grenade launcher, both of which can be loaded with non lethal ordinance. I'd like to think that knowing they're specifically medivac duty they might be a little more careful this time.

Well, if its their primary purpose in the mission, then I could see that. Though I would think it would be good ideal for them have live ammo so they could better protect themselves and their passenger.

Well I did say MOSTLY non-lethal.

"Groin shot."
"AUUUGHHHH!!"
"Is that considered lethal or non-lethal?"
"...mini-me is gone...!"

Considering the number of people killed by supposedly non-lethal rounds, it's a valid question.

SRoss wrote:[Considering the number of people killed by supposedly non-lethal rounds, it's a valid question.

(serious)Indeed. The proper term is REDUCED lethality rounds/weapons. But sufficient velocity, excessive current, bad siting of the round, bad positioning of the target, and compromised health of the target can all contribute to making a 'non-lethal' weapon as deadly as a declared 'lethal' weapon. Even experimental 'sludge guns' carry the risk of somebody suffocating in the foam, and even with the microwave 'paincasters', you'll either find somebody to who ANY disruption of their bodies is dangerous, or is so enraged/grooked to the eyebrows they'll walk up the beam until they start getting burned.

taalismn wrote:

SRoss wrote:

Alpha 11 wrote:

SRoss wrote:Well as I recall, they have a machine gun and a grenade launcher, both of which can be loaded with non lethal ordinance. I'd like to think that knowing they're specifically medivac duty they might be a little more careful this time.

Well, if its their primary purpose in the mission, then I could see that. Though I would think it would be good ideal for them have live ammo so they could better protect themselves and their passenger.

Well I did say MOSTLY non-lethal.

"Groin shot."
"AUUUGHHHH!!"
"Is that considered lethal or non-lethal?"
"...mini-me is gone...!"

SRoss wrote:

Alpha 11 wrote:

SRoss wrote:Well as I recall, they have a machine gun and a grenade launcher, both of which can be loaded with non lethal ordinance. I'd like to think that knowing they're specifically medivac duty they might be a little more careful this time.

Well, if its their primary purpose in the mission, then I could see that. Though I would think it would be good ideal for them have live ammo so they could better protect themselves and their passenger.

Well I did say MOSTLY non-lethal.

Ah, yes you did.

SRoss wrote:

taalismn wrote:

SRoss wrote:

Alpha 11 wrote:

SRoss wrote:Well as I recall, they have a machine gun and a grenade launcher, both of which can be loaded with non lethal ordinance. I'd like to think that knowing they're specifically medivac duty they might be a little more careful this time.

Well, if its their primary purpose in the mission, then I could see that. Though I would think it would be good ideal for them have live ammo so they could better protect themselves and their passenger.

Well I did say MOSTLY non-lethal.

"Groin shot."
"AUUUGHHHH!!"
"Is that considered lethal or non-lethal?"
"...mini-me is gone...!"

Considering the number of people killed by supposedly non-lethal rounds, it's a valid question.

Agree.

taalismn wrote:

SRoss wrote:[Considering the number of people killed by supposedly non-lethal rounds, it's a valid question.

(serious)Indeed. The proper term is REDUCED lethality rounds/weapons. But sufficient velocity, excessive current, bad siting of the round, bad positioning of the target, and compromised health of the target can all contribute to making a 'non-lethal' weapon as deadly as a declared 'lethal' weapon. Even experimental 'sludge guns' carry the risk of somebody suffocating in the foam, and even with the microwave 'paincasters', you'll either find somebody to who ANY disruption of their bodies is dangerous, or is so enraged/grooked to the eyebrows they'll walk up the beam until they start getting burned.

Or just hoped up on drugs so bad, you have to go lethal.

The UEEF Explorers exit yet another portal...



Breetai: (Cracking his knuckles) "About damn time I had a challenge."

SRoss wrote:The UEEF Explorers exit yet another portal...

The Latest Earth

Breetai: (Cracking his knuckles) "About damn time I had a challenge."

Looks like those giants are screwed and not in a good way.

Breetai:Robotech's Duke Nuke'em

Yeah, still going into it. Just hoping to contribute in a positive manner. Sorry about any spelling errors. USB keyboards don't contribute to spellcheck.
********
The file had been downloaded, and all Nova Satori, supreme head of the UEsG GMP, awaited was her audience. Within a few minutes, Captain Ayanami-Hunter walked through the door and sat down.

"Nova, what was so important that I couldn't even return to my ship yet after my enforced leave?"

"What," Nova smirked, "you mean the orders from command to actually *take* leave? The leave that you spent the entirety of 'riding your wild horse'?"

Rei blushed heavily, but still nodded.

Nova reclined slightly in her chair. "I know that there are standing orders to inform you whenever we deal with a NG-Type world. And we had a nasty one."

Rei sat upright, blinking once. "How bad was it?"

"The short answer is forty-seven dead, over two hundred wounded. These were mostly marines, cyclone-clad commandos, and some borrowed ODSTs."

"What went wrong?" Rei asked, now in professional mode.

Nova sighed heavily. "Poor intel, for the most part. But more damningly, we got complacent. We expected pretty much all of the NG worlds to be similar. So we weren't really expecting anything too different when we saw Antartica gone and glowing, NERV fully operational and fighting angels. The date was 2028, but some intel wonk signed off on it, saying in his report that such a thing wouldn't be unexpected, given the dimensional chronal drifting and variance that we've encountered. After that, the uppers in High command said to get it done."

"I see. Who was in command?"

"Stovesh, on the Sherman." Rei nodded; Stovesh was an excellent ship driver. "In fact, I have his after-action report here."

Rei's eyes narrowed as her mind belatedly called up details. "Wait. Sherman... Wasn't that ship loaded with more science gear and less armament?"

"Sort of. We had a few allies on board. Urzu Unit, Kilo-5, and Aleph Squad."

"Interesting. Urzu Unit is known for excellence in the field, and everyone knows that Kilo-5, despite being obvious spies for the Office of Naval Intelligence, are peerless when they get their boots on the ground. Although I am unfamiliar with Aleph Squad."

Nova's teeth ground at the mention of them. "Aleph Squad were originally the United Earth Government's hatchet men. Tough, nasty, willing to get the job done no matter the cost. Now, they are led by Aleph-7, Jeremiah Darkraven. He was an early extradimensional, showed up during the First Robotech War. He served there, as well as after when he worked directly for the UEG council while the Army of the Southern Cross was really in charge. That's when I met him. God, but Field Marshall Leonard hated him. So did Major Fredericks, but for different reasons. Fredericks wanted him strung up for treason, but the
UEG wouldn't let him.

"He ended up joining us when Sterling jacked Wolff's ship and headed for Tirol. He was assigned to Aleph Squad, given the number seven, and has stuck to it ever since. He is crazy, imaginitive, and has access to resources that he refuses to share, even under orders. He favorite excuse is, 'Sorry, you're not Need-To-Know on that.' Sadly, the smirking ******* is usually accurate. I think that only Admiral Hayes could order that jerk to cough up his specialized gear."

"Sounds like a handful. Why would he be sent into classified operations if he and his team are such difficult pieces of work?"

"Because they get the job done," Nove replied, shrugging. "Unconventional warfare is the only form of warfare they know. Shock, awe, psychological warfare, assassination, you name it. I don't think any of the Alephs would stand being in an old-fashioned stand-up war."

"So what about the after action report?"

Nova grinned. "You're gonna LOVE this one."
***